Adam Cole and MJF have carried AEW programming over the past few months.
AEW All In 2023 hasn’t happened yet, but it is already the biggest event in the company’s brief history, the pro wrestling show with the most tickets ever distributed and a potential game-changer for the world of sports entertainment.
Emanating from Wembley Stadium in London, All In—plagued by last-minute booking changes—will take place in front of massive group of more than 80,000 AEW fans, an impressive feat for a show that has lacked quality build-up outside of a couple of marquee matches. The event’s clear headliner is MJF vs. Adam Cole, the best story going in AEW, but with AEW hosting another pay-per-view, All Out, just next week, it likely won’t be the be-all end-all of most of the company’s marquee feuds.
Expect All In to lay the framework for All Out, with AEW utilizing the next two blockbuster shows to propel the company into the big fall season, when TV competition is at its toughest. With another PPV just around the corner, AEW President Tony Khan will have a trickier time booking All In than he does with most AEW events.
Will he succeed? Let’s take a look at five smart booking decisions Khan and AEW must make at All In 2023.
Blackpool Combat Club Begins To Crumble
What, exactly, is the point of Blackpool Combat Club? With no William Regal and no Bryan Danielson, the stable has lost any appeal it once had. Are they heels? Are they tweeners? Why do they want to just beat people up? The world may never know.
It just feels like Jon Moxley is being dragged down by being associated with a group that ultimately serves little to no purpose. After all, its feuds generally mean nothing outside of giving Mox, Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta something to do. What’s more, Mox’s absence from solo action has hurt the singles scene on Dynamite whereas it’s become oh so easy to forget that Castagnoli is the ROH World Champion.
Every member of BCC lacks storyline direction, so when they take on a star-studded team led by Eddie Kingston in a Stadium Stampede match at All In, the bout should begin the breakup of the group—one way or the other.
The Young Bucks Dethrone FTR
The Young Bucks and the rest of The Elite recently decided against jumping ship to WWE, instead re-signing with AEW on lucrative, long-term deals. Did Nick and Matt Jackson re-up with AEW just to take a backseat in the tag team division? Probably not.
At All In, The Young Bucks will take on FTR in a battle of the best two tag teams in AEW’s oft-neglected tag division, which has been lackluster ever since the creation of the trios titles. It’s been more than a year since The Young Bucks held the AEW Tag Team Championship, but that year has been akin to an eternity.
While their match with FTR is virtually a toss-up, The Elite’s recent re-signing suggests that The Young Bucks are going to once again focus on building up the tag team division, and there’s no better way to do that than by reclaiming the tag titles.
Saraya Wins AEW Women’s World Title
Much like The Young Bucks, AEW made a significant “financial commitment” when the company signed Saraya, formerly WWE’s Paige, last year. A massive signing at the time, Paige’s return seemingly all leads to this: The former multi-time women’s championship making an improbable return to the ring and winning the women’s world title in her home country.
Although Saraya is a heel, AEW is all about giving fans big moments, and there is no denying that a title win for Saraya would be a true feel good moment, regardless of her status as a villain. It would also explain the somewhat surprising decision to have Hikaru Shida recently dethrone Toni Storm, Saraya’s Outcasts stablemate, to win the AEW Women’s World Championship.
Now, AEW has set the stage for Saraya to win the title and ultimately split from an irate Storm, who’s sure to be seething after Saraya took her championship.
Konosuke Takeshita And Bullet Club Gold Pull Off Monumental Upset
Konosuke Takeshita And Bullet Club Gold will battle The Golden Elite in trios action in what, at least on the surface, looks like the most predictable match on the card. It’s just difficult to imagine the impressive three-man team of Kota Ibushi, Kenny Omega and Hangman Page losing to three stars who rarely win matches.
Well, that is precisely why Takeshita and BCG should win. Takeshita’s new manager Don Callis is one of pro wrestling’s best heat magnets, but Takeshita, Jay White and Juice Robinson lack any real credibility as in-ring performers in AEW. That’s a shame because they’re all very good heels who could really benefit from beating a star-studded trio like The Golden Elite.
If Takeshita, White and Robinson continue to lose as they’ve done throughout most of their run in AEW, the company runs the risk of turning three potentially promising acts into forgotten midcarders on a roster that’s already full of them.
Adam Cole Turns Heel To Win AEW World Title
The feud-turned-friendship between Adam Cole and MJF has been, far and away, the best thing on AEW programming during the lead-in to All In. Of course, the most obvious way this storyline can hit its climax is for MJF, an elite dastardly heel, to turn on Cole, likely in order to retain the AEW World Heavyweight title.
But the best scenario, especially with MJF getting babyface-ish reactions, is for Cole to be the one who turns on MJF instead, preferably doing so in order to win the AEW World title. This seemingly heartwarming moment between Cole and MJF, a callback to Cole’s WWE NXT days, also appears to be a predictor of things to come.
With so many fans noticing the connection here as well as Cole’s history of betrayals, Cole being the one to turn on MJF is now the most obvious potential outcome. Yet, it also happens to be the best one.
MJF is great as a babyface while Cole thrives as a villain. Solidifying both stars as such at All In is a can’t miss opportunity for AEW.